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Builder confidence in the housing market rises as demand for newly-built, single-family homes rises. Based on a monthly survey from the NAHB, the HMI measures the health of the housing market on a point system from 0 to 100 based on three factors. The survey asks participants to rate market conditions for the sale of new, single-family homes at present, the market conditions for the sale of new, single-family homes in the next six months, and the traffic of prospective buyers of new homes.

Nationstar Holdings reported declining income in Q1. The market overall saw declines in mortgage revenue with PNC Financial Services Group, Wells Fargo, and JPMorgan Chase all reporting reductions in mortgage revenue in the quarter, but what drove Nationstar in Q1 was its strong servicing segment.

As the Federal Reserve begins to normalize their balance sheet, speculators believe that the final product may be up to three times larger than it was before the financial crisis, if not bigger. The balance sheet refers to the portfolio of securities, such as various types of Treasury debt and mortgage-backed securities (MBS), that it has purchased. Rising interest rates are sure to drive up rates in the housing market, and the Fed’s decision to pullback from mortgage-backed securities will only add to the rising rates.

According to the City of Philadelphia, black borrowers of Wells Fargo loans were over twice as likely to receive high-cost or high-risk loans than white borrowers, while Hispanic borrowers were around twice as likely, and home in predominantly minority neighborhoods were 4.7 times more likely to be foreclosed. Two weeks before this case, the Supreme Court had ruled that Miami could sue Bank of America for predatory lending practices that allegedly increased segregation.

In a decision on Monday, the Supreme Court ruled that under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), debt collectors that knowingly pursue stale debt in bankruptcy proceedings do not run the risk of facing potential consumer protection lawsuits, Law360 reports. The ruling came after the high court voted 5-3 to overturn an Eleventh Circuit decision which had found Midland Funding LLC, a purchaser of unpaid debt, potentially liable under the FDCPA.

On Tuesday, Fannie Mae will release its May 2017 Economic and Housing Outlook report. The Outlook is a forecast of economic trends in the housing and mortgage-finance markets, analyzing current and historical data. The previous Outlook from April 2017 saw weak overall economic patterns, while housing activity stayed relatively strong, which Fannie Mae tied to warmer weather.

Optimal Blue, a provider of a secondary mortgage market eCommerce platform, announced a partnership with Media Center CRM, which provides customer relationship management solutions to the mortgage industry. Mortgage and real estate professionals using Media Center CRM will have access to real-time prices from Optimal Blue.

Black Knight Financial Services announced last week the release of LoanSphere Empower 7.0, a new version of its loan origination system (LOS), including updates aimed at compliance with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) and enhanced technological integrations.

In 2015, a court dismissed all claims under the suit entirely, citing a six-year statute of limitations on MBS contract litigation, as established in ACE Securities Corp. v. DB Structured Products Inc. According to Judge Karla Moskowitz, a member of the five-judge panel in Thursday’s appeals court, JPMorgan Chase’s six-year obligation to safeguard WMC didn’t stop when its obligation to repurchase the loans did. It instead will end six years after WMB actually failed to make the repurchase.

Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) CEO Ross McEwan has stated that the bank is in talks to settle one of the two major U.S. investigations into allegations it mis-sold mortgage-backed securities. The bank had previously felt a reprieve in the case following the firing of acting Attorney General Sally Yates. McEwen stated that the bank could settle a lawsuit by the Federal Housing Finance Agency apart from another investigation by the Department of Justice (DOJ). The DOJ investigation has been stalled due to the changes in the U.S. government since President Trump’s election, Reuters reports.